Patrick H. Flaherty, Portland, ca. 1890

This image was digitized by a student at Cape Elizabeth High School.
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Patrick H. Flaherty (1869-1941) grew up in the Irish neighborhood of Portland's Munjoy Hill neighborhood close to the Roman Catholic Cathedral. He never finished grade school and worked much of his life as an undertaker.

Many Irishmen contributed to the Portland community by way of public service. Flaherty became active in the Portland Fire Department early in his life. In 1911, he was appointed chief, the first of Irish descent in Portland, and, in 1927, became the first president of the Maine Fire Chiefs Association.

Flaherty is pictured here in the uniform of the Portland Montgomery Guards, a local militia group comprised of young men of Irish descent.